


The Dreams I've Been Keeping

by fictorium



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Elevators, F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Marriage Proposal, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 08:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9171055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: 5 Conversations in an Elevator, and 1 that is resolutely not.Requested by anon.





	

-1-

Kara groans as another appointment disappears from the calendar. It took two months to wrangle that meeting at the Mayor’s office, and Cat has canceled in one of her moods. That’s the third time in two days and Kara is quickly running out of stammered apologies and muffin baskets for assistants every bit as harassed as she is.

She swears she won’t mention the inconvenience, but then Cat is snappish and impossible all afternoon, sending Kara all over the city on errands that would exhaust her if she weren’t a sun-powered battery that could pass for human. When she returns from the last trip, the sun already down, Cat doesn’t even look up as she orders Kara back down to the executive parking lot to fetch something from the sports car she’s been driving herself around in all week.

“Seriously?” Kara grumbles. She knows an assistant’s job is to pick up the tasks a CEO has no time for, but Cat could at least have mentioned this when Kara was out already. All these extra trips are making her crazy. After Leslie’s ability to really hurt her and a spell without powers, Kara’s just glad she’s back at peak invulnerability.

“Problem?” Cat’s attention is fully on Kara with the intensity of a laser. “Or is fetching and carrying suddenly beneath you? Getting ideas above your station, Keira?”

“It’s not that,” Kara says through gritted teeth. She doesn’t mind, honestly. It’s just so much more than normal, and if she really wanted to go there, frankly this kind of work was done by servants on Krypton. “But I could help you more effectively if I could combine some of these errands. I’m wasting a lot of travel time, and you don’t like wasted time Miss Grant.”

“No.” Cat pulls her glasses off without the usual one-handed flourish, dropping them on the desk with a hollow clatter. “I suppose I don’t.” She looks tired, Kara realizes for the first time all day. The concealer that can hide any imperfection is fading, and dark circles are evident for the first time. 

“And if you need to cancel meetings, it would help if you tell me why. Anyway, I’ll go get that sweater,” Kara concedes, but Cat holds up a hand to stop her. The simple motion has more power over Kara than gravity. 

“I should get home to Carter,” Cat sighs. 

“Do you want me to call your car service?” Kara offers. “It’s been a long day, so if you don’t feel like driving…”

“Just go home, Keira.”

“If you’re sure?”

Kara knows better than to pass up a chance at a suspiciously early night. If aliens and criminals wait until midnight to get rowdy, she might even have a chance to clear out some of the non-Alex shows on her DVR. Sensing Cat’s agitation to be rid of her, Kara grabs her purse and coat, leaving with something just short of superspeed.

She doesn’t realize she’s listening for the ding of Cat’s private elevator until it doesn’t come. Instead she hears the faint grumbling of Cat opening her drawer and fumbling with something, until the clear sound of flat shoes slapping against the hard floor gives Kara pause. Cat always puts her heels back on at the end of the day. Instead of the elevator sound, Kara hears the squeak of the stairwell door, those flat steps descending at a weary pace. 

Cat cannot be walking down 40 floors when she’s already bone-tired. Even the week Lois got a FitBit and challenged Cat to a showdown, she hadn’t been that insistent on walking. Cat had worn it for her workday full of pacing, then handed it to Kara with a loaded ‘I know you won’t let me down’. Kara would have objected if Lois hadn’t done exactly the same with Kal, the final step count being processed as an error by the counter.

But Kara engages her x-ray vision and sees Cat making her way down, pacing her steps for the long descent. 

It would be so easy to just ignore the discovery and go home. Uninterrupted hours call to Kara, but when she exits the elevator, she only makes it as far as the stairwell entrance. For a moment she debates climbing to meet Cat halfway, but not breaking a sweat by the 20th floor would be a little conspicuous. 

Cat comes to a stop when she sees Kara waiting.

“Miss Grant, if there’s a problem with your elevator, I would have brought you hand sanitizer for using the regular ones.”

“Keira-”

“Only with the mood you’ve been in, there’s no way you would have spared me a rant about people with bad cologne invading your space, or the sound of the cables being too loud. So I guess what I’m asking is: what’s really going on?”

Cat storms down the last section of the staircase, seemingly intent on going straight to the parking garage without giving Kara an answer. For a fleeting moment Kara moves to grab her arm, but Cat stops before Kara can calculate how little force to apply to keep the touch gentle.

“Since Leslie, I… It doesn’t feel safe.”

Of course. Kara wants to smack herself on the forehead. She’s divorced the acts of Supergirl so completely from Kara Danvers and the day job, that she hasn’t allowed herself to replay the events of Thanksgiving from a more human perspective. Thinking of it now, Kara’s face flushes with shame as she recalls Cat’s bravery in facing down Leslie just to let weak and allegedly human Kara flee to safety. 

“Your elevator…” Kara plays dumb one more time. “That’s why maintenance had to be called.”

“Supergirl saved me,” Cat tries to brush it off, but she can’t quite meet Kara’s gaze. “I guess I have you to thank for raising that alarm.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Kara insists, trying to reinforce that division one more time. “But if James is hanging out with both of us, I’ll pass that thanks along if you like?”

Cat meets Kara’s eye this time, and there’s an accusation behind it that Kara’s been dreading.

“Goodnight,” Cat says instead.

“Goodnight,” Kara calls after her, the plan already formed in her mind.

Sure enough, the next morning instead of waiting by her desk, Kara stakes out a different location with a steaming hot latte in her hand.

“Keira?” Cat looks genuinely surprised. For the first time in Kara’s tenure at CatCo, Cat has arrived at the office in workout gear. Designer, sure, but way more casual than anything she ever wears to work. “I was just-”

“Getting the elevator with your assistant,” Kara supplies, handing over the coffee. “It won’t be so bad with company.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“Neither is walking up all those stairs.” 

Cat takes the coffee, sips it and lets her frown relax just a little. “Fine. But you’d better have a plan if that thing starts hurtling back towards the ground.”

“Oh, I do,” Kara admits, before swiping her card to call the private elevator.

* * *

-2-

“You think he did this on purpose?” Cat demands, pacing three steps before turning and pacing three steps back again. It would make Kara dizzy, if she could get dizzy.

“Max Lord? Trap us in an elevator when we’re on our way to prevent him detonating a bomb?” Kara asks, flicking her cape out behind her to distract Cat from the pacing. It works, at least for a few seconds. “I absolutely think that.”

“When did you get so cynical?”

“Right around when my planet blew up?”

“Touché. If you’re so sure this is a trap, why aren’t you getting us out of here?”

“Because I could be wrong,” Kara says, jaw clenching again. That happens more when she’s dressed up in the suit. “Maybe he is just a decent guy who got a bit lost along the way. That’s what you think.”

“Oh, he was never decent.” Cat squints at the security camera in the corner, and jabs the emergency button again. “But I don’t think he’s a bad guy the way you seem to.”

“Still nothing,” Kara grumbles. “I don’t hear anything in the building, so whatever alarms should be going off for this stuck elevator are silenced. Seems deliberate to me.”

Cat retreats into the corner, propping herself up on the handrails and sinking just a little. 

“This is becoming a theme,” she whispers. “How long, do you think, before the cables start to mysteriously fray? Will there be a warning jolt? Or will it just freefall like with Leslie?”

“I’m here,” Kara reminds her. “Whatever he does, I can get us out of here. And I think we’ve waited long enough.” She doesn’t like how pale Cat has gotten, the beads of sweat at her hairline. During Kara’s first week on the job, one of the women in Marketing had sworn on her life that Cat had had surgery to remove pedestrian things like sweat glands. Until now, Kara had almost believed it. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be fast?” Cat is peevish, not opening her eyes. Kara digs her fingers into the metal doors and wrenches them apart. When she sees exposed brick and the metal frame of the elevator shaft, she checks on the other side with her x-ray vision. All clear. A deserted hallway and reception area. They’ll just be coming in a bit above the ground. Four strategic punches later, there’s a hole big enough to step through and bring Cat along with her. 

As Kara turns to guide Cat, that first jolt finally comes. The elevator drops six inches, and Cat launches herself from the corner straight into Kara’s arms. It’s not so much superspeed as momentum that has them clear when the car finally falls, Kara on her back a foot above the ground, a convenient soft landing place to break Cat’s fall.

“Okay, the floating is useful,” Cat says around a shaky breath. “What if we’re too late?”

“Then I’ll get as many people clear as I can before the detonation.” Kara rights them, setting Cat on the ground and standing in front of her. “Starting with you.”

“It can kill you,” Cat argues. “So if anyone’s leaving, it’s you and your cousin. I have a place in Metropolis you can use. Assuming you don’t actually live in a cave.”

“Let’s stop worrying about who’s going where and stop it happening in the first place,” Kara suggests, gentle when she lays a hand on Cat’s arm. “Whatever happens, I’m so proud to have been associated with you, Miss Grant. Even if you did go with ‘girl’ instead of ‘woman’.”

“Oh Kara, are you ever going to let that go?” Cat grimaces at the stunned silence. “Sorry. The hug gave you away. I was going to keep pretending until you were ready.”

Kara hugs her again, too overcome to speak. That Cat would unearth the story of the century - twice - and sit on the knowledge rather than expose Kara is the most generous thing anyone outside of the Danvers has ever done for her.

“Cat…”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Cat pushes Kara back from the hug just long enough to look her in the eye. “In case this really is some kind of apocalypse, I suppose there’s one more thing on my list.”

“Your list?” Kara knows what’s coming, raises her hand to Cat’s cheek, skimming it with her thumb and the faint drag of her costume material behind it. “I never took you for a romantic. In fact, I remember you mocking me for _sighing like something by a Brontë_ just last week so-”

Cat kisses her. It’s an almost ticklish pressure on Kara’s lips at first, the hesitation so unlike Cat that Kara is startled into making it something real. She threads her fingers through Cat’s hair, starting at the base of her neck, and kisses and kisses and kisses until they’re both a little breathless.

“Alas,” Cat groans, slapping her palms over the top of the House of El’s crest. “The world. And saving it.”

“Come on,” Kara adjusts her hold and takes Cat by the hand. “Maxwell Lord won’t know what hit him when we walk in.”

“Play it cool,” Cat warns. “We don’t want to provoke him. When he outlives his usefulness, then we’ll settle the balance for this little stunt.”

“That was… terrifying,” Kara admits, speeding them through hallways and up to the floor with Max’s office. “And kinda hot,” she adds, bringing them to a halt at Max’s office doors. Kara misses the transparency of Cat’s glass walls, all this marble and steel makes Kara shiver, even though she can blast through it in any number of ways. 

“Let’s do this,” Cat commands, dropping Kara’s hand and straightening her jacket. 

* * *

-3-

“Jesus Christ!” Cat curses as Kara drops in through the roof panel of her apartment building’s elevator. “Were you trying to scare me to death?”

“You took a vacation.”

“The world almost ended.”

“For the first time in four years.” Kara can’t let up now. It’s taken all of her considerable resolve to come here tonight. 

“So I was overdue.” Cat stands up straight, from where she’d been half-cowering in the corner. “You’re not in costume.”

“It’s a _suit_. Costumes are for kids at Halloween.” Kara picks the opposite side, like sparring boxers staking out their respective corners. “Is everything okay?”

“I needed some time to myself,” Cat trots out the prepared lie, the gloss of a statement approved by her publicist clinging to it. “Running an empire is a difficult job, and I haven’t been spending as much time with Carter as I would like.”

“Carter’s with his father,” Kara argues right back. “Which makes me think you’ve been hiding. Oh, hiding in a beautiful penthouse with really good Scotch, sure. But I still expected better from you.”

Cat rolls her eyes. “That’s always your first mistake. We can’t all go charging headfirst into stupid and _dangerous_ situations. My calculating and wise nature has lead me to where I am today.”

“I watched you buy an island because you had indigestion.” Kara has knowledge, and she is not afraid to wield it. “So tell me again about how you’re not impulsive.”

“I’m sure a spot of Frenching counts as eternal love where you’re from, _Keira_ , but it’s just tiresome how all of you turn these embarrassing crushes into something more than it should be. I get it, I’m irresistible. I should damn well hope so with all the work I put into this.” Cat gestures to her body, perfect in a McQueen skirt with splashes of red on black, and a fitted black blouse that make Kara’s fingers itch to unbutton it. “Let’s try to be professional, in your case for the first time. You might even like it.”

“I am always professional!” Kara has to protest, even as she blushes thinking of all the times she hasn’t been. Her crush was wildly unprofessional and honestly most days so obvious that it could be seen from the spot in space that Krypton used to occupy. “And what do you mean _all of you_?”

“Oh, you thought you were the first?” Cat laughs that tinkling, fake laugh. It’s the only thing about her that Kara truly dislikes. “At one point I think there was someone in Human Resources dealing exclusively with these embarrassing little situations. I can’t help the effect I have.”

“I see,” Kara says, because she does. “And I would believe that, really I would. Except you kissed me, Cat. Nothing to do with my crush.”

“Well, I-”

“Wait, are you so convinced you’re right that you’re going to deny what actually happened?” Kara takes a step forward, incredulous. Cat takes a step, ready to stand her down and argue the point. “You’re not a liar. Or did you just tell yourself it would be better this way? Because you wouldn’t have to admit you have feelings for me?”

“All that flying around at altitude has clearly addled your brain if you think that-”

“You want me?” Another step. Cat mirrors the action again, but it doesn’t seem like a conscious decision. Cat’s body clearly has an agenda, even if her mind is intent on denying it. Kara’s confidence picks up quickly, buoyed by the memory of frantic kisses and the day being saved yet again. This time, she gets to have both. She gets to be the hero and get the girl. Cat knows, and Kara doesn’t have to pretend. So she isn’t going back to pretending they don’t want this.

“Kara.” Cat sighs, and it’s all the admission Kara needs. A hint of tears, frustrated or otherwise, and Kara hesitates before taking the plunge this time. She so rarely gets to see Cat this uncertain.

“I’m here,” is all she says, and Cat lets the first tear fall. Kara wipes it away with her thumb, a reminder of how this started before. “I know people say that and then they’re not, but I’m here.”

“It’s not that easy. Look how I reacted to a kiss or two. I’m bad at this, Kara. Very, very bad.”

“So you’ll get better,” Kara suggests, putting her other hand on Cat’s hip and tugging her closer. “Don’t I always help you get everything you want?”

“You shouldn’t have to do that.” Cat is melting, slowly, into Kara’s loose embrace. “It’s not fair to ask that of you.”

“You didn’t. I’m offering.”

“Some things can’t be saved.” Cat’s hand runs over Kara’s bicep beneath her pink shirt, lingering long enough for an appreciative squeeze. “My romantic track record is one of them.”

“That’s because it doesn’t feature me yet,” Kara tells her, seeing her chance. “I’m not like everyone else you’ve dated.”

“Dated?” Cat snorts. “Is that what we’re calling this?” She looks up at Kara, half challenge and half plea. 

“It’ll do for now,” Kara sighs, and claims her kiss at last.

* * *

-4-

“You know-”

“Wait!”

Kara does. She taps her foot impatiently as they wait for the elevator, until Cat nudges her for using so much force that the floor is shaking. Eventually the damn thing dings its arrival. Kara lets Cat go first, relieved there’s no one else leaving the restaurant to crowd in with them. 

“You know-” Kara tries again, but Cat backs her against the railing so fast that Kara forgets she doesn’t _have_ to move simply because a human exerts their strength on her; she doesn’t have to move even if a locomotive tries that with her. 

“I chose this tourist hellhole for you. Your favorite place outside of National City, you told me.”

“It is!” Kara pleads. “The architecture is a lot like Argo City. Plus it’s literally called the Space Needle. It’s… really on brand for me?”

“Cute.” Despite herself, Cat does allow a quirk of her lips. “Since when do you care about branding?”

“Since I fell in love with the hottest brand on the West Coast? Who also happens to be the hottest woman on any coast?”

“I’ve created a monster.” Cat jabs the elevator button, aggravated by how slowly it’s moving. “I never should have encouraged you in thinking you’re smooth.”

“Oh, I’m plenty smooth,” Kara reminds her, grabbing Cat’s hand away from the buttons and redirecting it between her bare thighs. “Now, about me spoiling the moment back there.”

“It’s fine,” Cat lies, toying with the hem of Kara’s dress. “It’s too soon, I was pushing again.”

“No, it’s not too soon. I’ve been ready for you to ask me for a long time now.”

“Really?”

“Since the third date, really.”

“Doesn’t explain why you _spat_ a ring that cost more than your college education across a room full of people. The waiter thought it was a bullet, Kara.”

“Not because I didn’t want it!” Kara protests. “But you’ve seen the way I eat! What possessed you to hide it in my dessert?”

“Romance?” Cat huffs. “I’ve been proposed to very badly a number of times. Now it’s finally my turn to do the asking, I wanted it to be perfect.”

“It is,” Kara insists, reaching out and stopping the elevator by slamming the emergency button. That’s definitely going to need repairing. “And while you were quite content to storm out without it, superspeed is very handy for retrieving projectile engagement rings. So, here.”

She waits for Cat to offer up her hand, placing the ring on her palm. 

“Ask me.”

“This isn’t-”

“Ask me.”

Cat considers, holding the ring up to the light, held tight between her thumb and forefinger. 

“No spitting this time,” she warns. “Not a qualification I thought I’d have to make, but here we are.”

“Cat…”

“Well? Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

* * *

-5-

“Don’t touch me!” Kara tries to take off, but it’s little more than a pathetic hop. 

Cat winces, and places her hand on the scanner to access the DEO’s hidden elevator. To anyone watching closely it would have looked like Cat and Kara were welcomed into a private office suite. Behind the marble columns and steel-reinforced walls though, lies the entrance to the DEO available to bodies that can’t fly in through the 23rd floor window.

“Nearly there, darling,” Cat reassures. Kara really hates her for being so calm. “I’m sure Eliza has her plan finalized now.”

“I do not want my foster mom all up in my… owwwww!” Kara groans as another contraction hits. 

“I know you’re still a little mad at her for not realizing you could get pregnant this way, but I think the time for holding grudges is behind us, don’t you?”

“Hnnnnnng!” Is Kara’s only response. She punches a series of dents in the elevator walls, the rhythm helping her to regulate her breathing. Even with her powers this diminished, she retains enough strength to do damage, and it’s killing her that she can’t do the one most calming thing of all and take Cat’s hand in hers. 

“You can do this,” Cat reminds her, and there’s a soothing pressure of a hand between her shoulderblades. Kara leans into the touch and sobs at how tired she already is, how terrified she’s been for months now. 

Finding out the Kryptonian approach to reproduction on Earth has been a learning curve for them all, and coming up with appropriate birth control has been a mortification Kara is still trying to escape. It’s not like there’s a pressing concern for it while this baby girl is still waiting to be born; a wait that is apparently almost over. Cat has been remarkably sanguine about finding out she can trigger spontaneous reproduction in her wife, but Kara’s fairly sure that’s just relief that Cat isn’t the one who has to endure this nausea-filled, power-sapping months.

Not that it’s been all bad. Closing her eyes, Kara digs deep for her usual sunny disposition. She thinks of building the crib with Alex, under Cat’s bemused supervision. Charting the baby’s development with Carter, finding her mostly comparable to a human with some quirky improvements. Making it a project for him had eased the initial qualms about sharing his mom and Kara with a newcomer. Tiny clothes and stuffed animals and shelves already laden with every children’s book that met Cat’s approval.

Kara doesn’t want to meet her daughter feeling only dread and panic. Cat’s hand moves in small circles, and focusing on that is enough to get Kara calm by the time they reach the medical floor of the DEO.

“I don’t mind if you need to get back to work,” Kara blurts. “This could take a really long time, right? You told me Adam was like 36 hours…”

“Do you really think I want to be anywhere else?” Cat looks a little hurt, and Kara wishes she could take it back. “Someone has to explain your taste in cardigans to our daughter, and I don’t want to be even a minute late.”

“Ha ha,” Kara says through gritted teeth, another contraction building. She pulls her maternity cardigan around her in a huff. “Ready?”

“I’m always ready,” Cat reminds her, and they walk down the corridor together to where their family is waiting to bring their newest member into the world.

* * *

-1- 

“So this is how you’ve been sneaking out.” Cat is waiting in Ada’s room when she and Kara come tumbling through the window, a miniature red cape cut from Kara’s own around their daughter’s shoulders. “We’re too good for the elevator now?”

“Sorry, mommy,” Ada looks contrite immediately, but there’s no denying the sparkle in her eyes, nor the flush in her cheeks. Kara can’t blame the kid for being buzzed; she still gets the same thrill almost every time she takes to the skies. It’s only become more magical now she has someone to share it with, someone who can keep pace with her, at least for a little while each day. 

“I wanted to show her Rao,” Kara explains. “Tonight’s the clearest night for a full cycle, and I’ve been promising. I would have called, but I thought we’d be home first.”

“You know I don’t mind,” Cat answers. “I’d like to be invited, but I suppose it’s wasted on me without a telescope. It’s important you know where you come from, Ada. But you make sure momma calls me before you go flying, okay? I don’t want you two playing chase with my helicopters again.”

“But we won?” Ada reminds them, looking confused. She slips the cape from her shoulders and wriggles onto Cat’s lap, already speed-changed back into her pajamas. 

“Of course you did,” Cat presses a kiss to the top of her head. “But helicopters are very expensive, so let’s try not to break any more of them, okay?”

“Okay.” Ada’s hands grip instinctively for Cat’s necklace, a habit that hasn’t ceased in four years. 

“You really don’t mind?” Kara approaches the rocking chair after kicking off her red boots, easing into the space next to Cat and wrapping her arms around them both. “It’s the Earth equivalent of my mom’s birthday today. I wanted to tell Ada some stories.”

“You don’t have to sneak in and out of windows like you’re breaking curfew, but otherwise it’s fine. As long as you’re sure it doesn’t make her a target, I trust you.”

“No one saw her, I promise. We fly close until we’re way above the city.”

“Take me next time? For the stories, if nothing else.”

“You still can’t stand getting scooped, can you?”

“Not by our preschooler, no.” Cat wriggles a little, and Ada does too. Kara pulls them closer, and listens for the sound of Carter returning home from wherever he’s hanging out with his friends tonight. Her family is whole and safe, and she’s intent on always keeping them that way. 

By the time she hears Carter’s key in the lock, Cat and Ada have already dozed off. Kara sets them gently in their respective beds and goes to meet her son in the kitchen. She has stories enough left for him, too. 


End file.
